Dan Rowinski's Mobile Platform

By Dan Rowinski

BlackBerry PlayBook in action: Some hands-on video time

As a topic of discussion, the BlackBerry PlayBook has been a hot item for the Mobile Platform. We put it on the cover of GCN for our February issue and several government agencies are awaiting its arrival before jumping into the tablet market.

On Tuesday BlackBerry maker Research In Motion announced the PlayBook's availability and pricing. The 16-gigabyte Wi-Fi version will start at $499 ( the 32G is $599, the 64G $699) and be available through Best Buy stores starting April 18. Federal agencies probably are not going to have to go through Best Buy, but that's what RIM announced.

At the MobileFocus event at CTIA Wireless in Orlando, we ran in to some working BlackBerry PlayBooks and, after resolving some Wi-Fi issues at the venue, had them give us a hands-on demo. They have not yet finished some of the enterprise applications (sorry, I tried, they would not show us) but it looks like the device will do some slick multitasking. The 7-inch tablet has a good look, intuitive interface and feels good in the hands (which is a must for tablets because of the nature of the form factor).

We will see when RIM sends the GCN Lab an official demo model, but for now enjoy the video of one of the most anticipated device releases of 2011.

The GAO director of information technology issues is leaving government after 16 years. On his way out the door, Dave Powner details how far govtech has come in the past two decades and flags the most critical issues he sees facing federal IT leaders.